Far too frequently, bands are billed as having a sound unlike anything else when they don’t deserve it.

Of course, there are exceptions, and certain bands capture their own sound independently of everything else going on in popular music.

This is true of The Mars Volta. For better or for worse, The Mars Volta’s unique style is indecipherable, challenging and sometimes downright frustrating.

With their new release, “Amputechture,” The Mars Volta establishes its place as one of the most unique bands in popular music.

There is a full sound to this album largely credited to the nine musicians — including The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ guitarist John Frusciante — playing on it. “Amputechture” is the latest chapter from a band content with consistently pushing the boundaries of what mainstream audiences can accept.

The album’s seven-minute opening track, “Vicarious Atonement,” shows the shape-shifting nature of The Mars Volta. “Vicarious Atonement” focuses on some bizarre guitar riffs and haunting vocals but axes out the drums. Lyrics like “I should have killed you when I had the chance” set an ominous and foreboding tone for the album.

The second track, “Tetragrammaton,” shows the psychedelic and progressive side of the band. At 16 minutes, this track can be exhausting, but it shows just how powerful The Mars Volta can be as it leaps from one perplexing movement to the next.

“Meccamputechture,” the album’s fourth track, is a straightforward rocker. Its trippy grooves and precision mix of programmed and acoustic beats are bound to make even the nerdiest white kids feel like they can dance.

The most impressive aspect of “Amputechture” is how the songs segue seamlessly into one another. While the segues on the band’s debut, “De-Loused in the Comatorium,” (2003) were frequently just ambient noise leading into the next track, the segues on “Amputechture” are bits of music that create greater continuity.

In short, “Amputechture” sounds like one 75-plus minute song. Because of its length, listening to this album can be a daunting task, but it is rewarding in ways that many other releases are not. There is a cyclical feeling to this album, as its closer, “El Ciervo Vulnerado,” is again an epic-length song with no drums that brings “Amputechture” full circle.

The band has cut the fat out of its songs on this release. Gone are the unnecessarily long ambient noise parts that plagued the band’s sophomore release, “Frances the Mute” (2005). Every note on this album has a purpose while keeping the improvisational feel of the band’s prior releases intact.

That is the best approach The Mars Volta could have taken on its third release. There are perks to every song, but “Amputechture” works as a unit. There aren’t single songs on this release to compare and contrast. The album is musical storytelling. When The Mars Volta gets it right, there is nothing to compare it to.

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